We love getting photos from our loyal customers. We love seeing our gear being used, and we love sharing those photos with the PahaQue community. We figured the best way to get those photos is via a photo contest, and to give away a $100 gift card. So here is what we need from you:

Email us at happytrails@pahaque.com and attach a photo of your PahaQue Custom or PahaQue Wilderness gear out in the real world. Include your Instagram handle if you have one. We love photos include people, and pets. In return for your lovely photo, you’ll get a chance at a $100 PahaQue Custom gift card, and a our everlasting appreciation. Be sure to read the full contest rules below, and send us your photo by February 28, 2018.

Photo Contest Rules: Entries should be submitted via email as a JPEG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF attachment Each photo should include photographer’s name, location, caption. Any photographs including identifiable images of people must include subject’s permission. The photographs must be your own original creations. You must be the sole owner of the copyright of any photograph(s) submitted.Your submission of each photograph is your guarantee that you are the author and copyright holder of such photograph. By entering, you also warrant that the image does not violate or infringe upon the copyright, trademark, rights of publicity, privacy, or any other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity.By virtue of their entry, contestants agree that the PahaQue and PahaQue Custom may adapt, edit, and/or modify their photographs in any way and may also publish or otherwise use their photographs for promotional or other purposes . Your Submission constitutes agreement of this use without compensation, right to royalties, or any other compensation.

The gift that gives for 12 months, and only costs 80 bucks.

Let’s face it. A romantic dinner date for Valentine’s day is a bit amateur hour. Heading out for a fancy dinner is what almost everyone does for this winter holiday. But you and your valentine aren’t everyone. You prefer wildflowers over a bouquet of flowers, campfire stories over dining by candlelight, and cooking with a camp stove over being served by a waiter in a suit. So for less than the cost of a dinner date, give your sweetheart the gift that lets them know that you want more than just dinner and a movie. You want a lifetime of adventure together ( or at least 12 months of it). The America The Beautiful National Parks Pass is the ultimate Valentine’s day gift.

The last federal government shutdown was in 2013, and one of the immediate effects that was felt by campers was the shutdown of federal parks. It appears that most federal parks are being left open when possible, but no staff or resources will be available. So here are a few things you may consider if you plan on camping at a federal park during the shutdown:

The gate may or may not be open when you get there. Parks like Yosemite, and Big Bend National Parks are open right now, but but not every federal park is open, and those gates could be locked at any moment. The NPS is not offering much information right now, so keep your fingers crossed! NPS Twitter is inactive, but you may be able to search and find out what other users are reporting.

Your reserved site might not be ready. Park staff have all been furloughed, so there is nobody to guide you to your site, prep the site for you, or to help you if you need help. That includes rescue and emergency medical services, so stay safe and be prepared for the unexpected. Print out any maps or other information before you head out.

Guided tours, hikes, and the like are shut own until the federal government re-opens. So that park ranger guided hike that points out the nest of the elusive desert swallow is canceled until everything is back to normal

There is no trash pickup or toilet services. Make sure you bring extra garbage bags, and plan on hauling it all out with you. If you have a trailer or RV, you’ll have a toilet, but no dump station. Car campers might find the bathrooms locked, or in and “unpleasant” state. Make sure to bring your PahaQue TeePee for privacy as well as a portable camping toilet and your own paper.

Hopefully this will all be over soon, and we’ll be back to normal. Are you visiting federal parks during the shutdown? head on over to our Facebook page and tell us what you found.

Time for the first winter recipe of 2018: Much of the country is blanketed in a
winter wonderland right now, but the warming euphoria of the aroma of cinnamon, sage, pine, and other holiday staples is what really drives the fall/winter season mood in my opinion, and we’re going to use a couple of those here.
Boneless country style pork ribs are my personal favorite. They’re super tender and easy
to grill. But any cut of pork will work just great. If you’re using pork chops, make sure
they’re at least an inch thick. And this will be a double cooking process. Follow along…
Major Players:

Start by grilling the pork just until all sides are browned and you have some nice grill marks on all sides. Make sure you coat the pork in a little olive oil and salt and pepper first. You don’t need to cook it all the way through here. The second part of this is done in foil pouches. Pour a little olive oil on the foil and lay the pork down on top. Then simply add the garlic, onion, sage, cranberries, butter, and chopped walnuts over the pork. Seal it up but leave a slight opening for venting. Let it hang out over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the pork from the foil to a plate to cool, but don’t you dare throw all that wonderfulness in the foil away. No no no… Drizzle the contents over the pork and serve. Sagey goodness abounds.

The time to get those final gifts for your favorite camper is now. Of course there are tons of cool options on PahaQue.com where you can use the code “FALL2017” to get 30% off everything on the site through the end of the month. For your R-Pod fans, the code POD30 will get 30% off all R-pod accessories on PahaqueCustom.com through December 20th. But here is our gift guide, where we recommend a few specific products from Pahaque and other brands that we love. These gifts range from $5 to $599, so you’ll find something in just about every price range.

Thanksgiving is a great time to go camping. You have extra time off of work, the kids are out of school, and the fall air is cool and crisp. The only downside to camping may be that you risk missing out on the Thanksgiving feast. But as you well know, at PahaQue we love cooking outdoors, and we think that a Thanksgiving meal is even better when enjoyed outdoors on a camping trip with family. Of course camping out of a tent , or even camping out of your trailer provides a unique set of challenges when preparing Thanksgiving dinner. The primary one being: How to cook a Turkey when when you are camping? If you have a a large motorhome, you may not have any issues, but even a large R-pod doesn’t have enough space to roast a 12lb bird, so we prefer to head straight to the campfire. Of course there is always the option of deep frying your Turkey when you are camping, but the gear and oil required for that job is bulky, and can take up a ton of space in your car or your teardrop trailer. Not to mention that fact that all of that hot oil can be dangerous. So we prefer this alternative to deep frying a turkey, one that is healthier and less dangerous to boot. We learned this method from Little Guy Trailers a few years ago. How to cook a Thanksgiving Turkey on a campfire:

Supplies you will need:

A shovel and rake ( rake optional)

A turkey of course

Olive oil

Your preferred spices ( rosemary, salt, etc)

Aluminum foil

Cheesecloth

A nice big fire

Step 1: Start the Fire

The first step to cooking a turkey on a campfire is planning ahead with plenty of fuel for the fire. Have a big pile of wood ready to go, and get that fire going enough to create plenty of hot coals. You’ll need to dig a 2X2 foot hole next to your campfire, as that’s where you’ll cook your bird.

STEP 2: Prep Your Bird

While that campfire is burning, you can clean and prepare your turkey. Just clean it up and rub it down with the same spice mix you would use if you cooked your turkey at home. If you love stuffing, just stuff the turkey as you normally would, and then get ready to protect it from direct contact with the coals.

Step 3: Protect Your Bird

Once the bird is rubbed and stuffed, you’ll need to wrap the turkey entirely in the cheesecloth, and then wrap the turkey in three to four layers of aluminum foil. This step is important, as it will protect your bird from the coals. We’ve always wanted to try getting rid of the cheesecloth, and wrapping it in cabbage leaves. This is how we cooked our “trail burgers” back in our boy scout days. We like the idea, but haven’t been brave enough to try it. If you decide to try the cabbage leaves, let us know how it goes!

Step 4: Move your bird

Once your coals are ready, take your shovel or rake and put about half the coals in the bottom of the whole you dug earlier. You’ll want a couple of inches of coals, and you’ll want to spread them evenly across the bottom of the hole. Then use the shovel to carefully place the turkey on top of the coals, and follow up the turkey with the rest of the coals. Try to gently cover it as completely as possible, and its ok to use some of the dirt to build up a little wall around the edges.

Step 5: Wait

Since a 10-12 lb turkey takes around 3 hours too cook, you’ll have some time to relax before you start preparing the rest of your meal. For anything over 12 lbs, just add 15 minutes per lb to the cooking time. After you have relaxed and recovered from all that digging, campfire building, and rubbing, you can start preparing the rest of your meal. Fans of the blog know that Cooky Jason’s grilles, scalloped potatoes will go great with a campfire cooked turkey.

Step 6: Chow down

When the time is up, use your shovel to carefully remove your bird from the coals. You won’t want to set it down directly on the table, as the bird and the coals will be extremely hot. We like to set it down on a nice tree stump or flat rock. Unwrap the turkey, using great care to watch our for steam and hot air escaping from the foil. Then transfer to a carving board, carve it up, and enjoy!

We don’t often share info about other products. but this is too cool to pass up. A water bottle that can boil water using only a battery! Coffee, hot meals, and purified water with no fire or stove! Cool. www.cauldryn.com

Just wanted to let you know I received the repaired (they look new to me) poles for my 12×12 screen room yesterday, After sell support just doesn’t get any better than this. You folks have great products (two screen rooms and two cabanas here) that is exceeded only by your support.
Thanks,
J. Killebrew
Tarboro, NC

We had it up in a storm at a rally in Iowa and ended up with split poles which PahaQue Wilderness promptly replaced, it’s so nice to have such a great product and company.

M. Darrow

When I spend $15 to $20K on the highest quality trailer out there, I don’t mind spending $500 for a quality product to protect it, rather than some cheap tarp that lasts a couple of years. Plus, supporting PahaQue Wilderness is the right thing to do – they provide us with lots of great products.

Chef Jason’s World Famous Grilled Scalloped Potatoes

Chef Jason’s World Famous Grilled Scalloped Potatoes

I love these. And they’re quite simple to make, even with the extra step of grilling the potatoes first. But that’s important here. Grilling the potatoes takes an ordinary batch of scalloped potatoes to a new level with that coveted grilled/smoked flavor we all love. And while I don’t usually use ANYTHING out of a can, making cream of mushroom soup from scratch is a bit of a long process, so taking some help from the store here is OK every once in a while in my book.

Major players:

6-7 medium-sized potatoes. Russets, or Yukon Golds if you can get them

To start, slice the potatoes into about 1/8 inch slices. Toss them with a little olive oil and salt and grill them over medium heat for about 3 minutes per side. They don’t need to be cooked through at this point. Remove from grill and set aside.

Combine the soup, cheese, green onions/chives, garlic, bacon, and salt/pepper in a bowl. Now at this point you go can go a couple ways. What I like to do is use a disposable aluminum roasting pan. (Dutch oven is great, too.) Select the appropriate size. Spread the potatoes in an even layer on the bottom and cover with the soup mixture. Alternate layers of potatoes and soup mixture until all are used. Distribute some pads of butter over the top. Cover with remaining shredded cheese and place on the grill over medium heat for about 25 to 30 minutes. If doing this over an open fire instead of a grill with a lid, cover pan with foil. Be careful when removing the foil and watch for hot steam. Serve….

The other way is to make up individual foil packets. This batch size will be about 8 servings. Just tear 8 pieces of foil about 10 inches long and evenly distribute the grilled potatoes and soup mixture into each one. Top with butter and close to seal. Same cook time. Done.

*Note: If using an aluminum pan or foil packets do not place directly over flame.

Questions/comments/requests/suggestions/limericks/thoughts on life/childhood stories? Feel free to drop me a line at jasonr@pahaque.com.